India electoral roll deletions spark controversy over SIR process

Activists and political leaders in India are raising alarms over massive deletions from electoral rolls following the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. In Delhi, critics report a significant drop in the electorate, with some analyses suggesting a reduction of over one-third of the earlier electorate in certain areas. Reports indicate that many deletions occurred even before formal SIR enumeration, disproportionately affecting migrant and working-class populations.

Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has alleged that the overall deletions across three phases of the SIR amount to approximately 14% of total electors, claiming that roughly 13.3 crore citizens have been converted into non-voters. Political activist Yogendra Yadav has characterized the exercise as a “fraud on our democracy” and a “criminal conspiracy,” arguing that the scale of deletions lacks adequate due process, notice, or verification.